Cabal missing dependency error

Question

$ cabal install git-annex --force-reinstalls --bindir=$HOME/bin.local -f"-assistant -webapp -webdav -pairing -xmpp -dns"
...
Configuring git-annex-5.20140116...
Building git-annex-5.20140116...
Preprocessing executable 'git-annex' for git-annex-5.20140116...

Remote/External.hs:29:8:
    Could not find module `Control.Concurrent.STM'
    It is a member of the hidden package `stm-2.4.2'.
    Perhaps you need to add `stm' to the build-depends in your .cabal file.
    It is a member of the hidden package `stm-2.2.0.1'.
    Perhaps you need to add `stm' to the build-depends in your .cabal file.
    Use -v to see a list of the files searched for.
cabal: Error: some packages failed to install:
git-annex-5.20140116 failed during the building phase. The exception was: ExitFailure 1
$ cabal install stm --force-reinstalls --bindir=$HOME/bin.local
Resolving dependencies...
All the requested packages are already installed:
stm-2.4.2
Use --reinstall if you want to reinstall anyway.

How can I force Cabal to ignore the Could not find module... error and install git-annex?

Somebody else has reported the same problem here. The developer said that it's fixed, but apparently it's not.

Answer 1

The compiler error message describes the problem:

Could not find module `Control.Concurrent.STM'
It is a member of the hidden package `stm-2.4.2'.
Perhaps you need to add `stm' to the build-depends in your .cabal file.

So if you cabal unpack git-annex, cd into the directory, edit the cabal file to add stm to the build-depends, and then run cabal install from there, that should resolve the issue...